6.01.2009

Here's an interesting "story-behind-the-story" piece by NPR on Jeffrey Rosen's anonymously sourced story about Sotomayor's ostensible lack of intelligence. It traces, in detail, the subsequent snowball effect in the news media.

Rosen has decided to give up blogging as a result of the controversy.

I still don't take Rosen to task to anywhere near the degree that Glenn Greenwald slams him:

Greenwald says it would have been legitimate to explore the judge's rulings and even her temperament, but he called the way Rosen assessed her as "reckless and just journalistically corrupt."

"Essentially, what he did was the equivalent of finding a few people who disliked somebody, giving them anonymity so they can say whatever they want, without any accountability whatsoever, and then passing along pure, vindictive gossip," Greenwald says.

Just because individuals make it to certain positions and get by doesn't automatically remove the duty from journalists to get insider opinions on the true intellectual heft and actual demeanor of a nominee for service on the nation's highest court.

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Letters in Bottles began in January 2005 as "Letters in Bottles: The Island Pundit" at the University of Wisconsin. Started by Steve S, the blog includes a number of regular contributors, all of whom met originally on the "island" of Madison. We are: A veteran of the Iraq War. A former Peace Corps volunteer in the Caucasus. A law student in New Orleans. An Engineering grad student. We comment regularly on politics, world affairs, culture, news, music, and much more.